About Us

The Minnesota Active Citizenship Initiative (MACI) organizes a base of leaders and a new basis for policy making in the state of Minnesota that places the obligation to govern justly and wisely in the role we all have as citizens.

The base of leaders uses a civic organizing approach to implement a civic policy agenda. The civic policy agenda produces the civic capacity and civic infrastructure needed for institutions to achieve their particular purpose and foster economic and environmental sustainability while addressing the complex problems that threaten the common good.

Civic organizing sustains democracy as a just system of governance.

Kowalski’s Markets discusses its civic business philosophy:

I have become increasingly troubled about what is not working in our society. Civic organizing provides a path for systemic civic renewal. By incorporating civic principles in our grocery business we are sustaining the company for succeeding generations and contributing to the quality of civic life in Minnesota.”

—Mary Kowalski, Owner, Kowalski’s Markets

We believe that faithful people have an obligation to be active citizens in their families, their congregations, in their community and in the larger society. An active citizen takes on the obligations of a governing member: to participate in public deliberation, decision making, and policy making in good faith to move towards the common good. No matter what structure of authority exists, a citizen cannot abdicate responsibility to govern for the good of the whole. This role and obligation is supported in the teachings and the principles of Islam and provides the way for Muslim Americans to live within and contribute to the larger society without losing our own history and identity.”

Sean Kershaw and Juventino Meza, Star Tribune, February 24, 2015 In this article, Kershaw and Meza reflect on “The Miracle of Minneapolis” article by Derek Thompson in a recent edition of the Atlantic magazine. Thompson attributes the success of the region to the fiscal disparities program conceived by the Citizen League and enacted in 1971. Read More

The following was written by Angie Sechler, co-leader of the community-based Como Active Citizen Network and member of the Como Civic Governance Organizing Agency. Angie describes her experience in claiming the identity of citizen, meaning governing member, in her neighborhood organization, which is working to address Como Lake’s water quality impairment in St. Paul’s Como Read More

The questions most frequently asked by organization and community leaders who are exploring civic organizing reveal the immediate interests common to leaders across settings: How do we get the right stakeholders at the table to address an issue and organize ownership across their diversity to implement solution strategies? How can we organize a base of Read More

Kowalski’s Markets has dedicated substantial resources in terms of time and money to send all of their leadership personnel through an in-depth training course on civic organizing and civic leadership. Kowalski’s has undertaken a new approach to policy making, based on democratic practices, which we use to solve business issues and meet our goals. Read More

Many individuals and systems have chosen to disassociate with politics—some even openly speak out against politics. Even politicians say, “Oh, it’s just political” as if the process that defines their work is degrading. When I hear politicians say this, I think, would a teacher say, “Oh, that’s just education” referring to teaching as if it were evil. Read More

In the realization that something is wrong with the very civic fabric of our society rather than simply the ethics of individuals or any one sector, Tony Massengale and I (with the help of many key partners) co-authored the Civic Organizing Framework. Read More

Even before we were introduced to civic organizing, we knew that Islamic values and customs are compatible with democratic principles. However, in the Muslim world, democracy is often associated with western governments and decades of western colonization which produced negative associations with democracy including the language surrounding its meaning. Read More

Like a lot of people, I used to think politics was just about government, elections, and politicians. The word conjured images of power brokers and back room deals and had little, if anything, to do with me. As a leader in the Minnesota Active Citizenship Initiative (MACI), my understanding of politics has deepened and changed, Read More

Just to make myself miserable, I’ll sometimes play the “what if” game. What if I could have known the recent recession was coming? What would I have done differently with my family’s resources, or the Citizens League’s? Ah, how the world would be different if I had only known. Minnesota is in the middle of its own financial “what if” game right now, except that…we know what’s coming. Read More

This Renewing the Public Congregation case study is presented by the Islamic Civic Society of America. Islamic Civic Society of America (ICSA) demonstrates the compatibility between Islamic and Civic principles in a democratic society. Members of ICSA are dedicated to governing for the common good while addressing the specific needs of the Muslim community. The Read More

The Civic Governance (CG) case study was updated November 2014 and presented to MACI institutional members. Updates focused on progress made advancing our solution strategy, a new approach to water governance called Civic Governance, in three regional pilot settings – Minnesota St. Croix River Basin. Wisconsin St. Croix River Basin, and Como Lake Subwatershed in St. Paul, MN. 2014 goals for each pilot included testing our capacity to organize a CG infrastructure, produce an educational track to support expansion and advancing a Civic Governance Policy Agenda based on outcomes from organizing in our respective pilot settings. Read More

We are testing a framework and approach, called Civic Governance (also called Civic Policymaking), as a strategy for transitioning our current approach to watershed governance to a civic approach. We are intentionally moving away from an expert-based, government-agency-driven system, toward one that is partnership-based and made up of citizens across our watersheds so that governing our waters is within the role and responsibility of all citizen leaders, from public and private sectors, throughout Minnesota. We have established three pilot projects to test this approach: two in the mostly rural St. Croix River Basin and one in the mostly urban Como Lake watershed. Read More

A Kowalski’s vendor was having trouble keeping up with orders. Kowalski’s was experiencing frequent out of stocks, mislabeled product, and poor communications. Out of stocks lead to unhappy customers and, in the long run, lack of sales and sustainability for our company. Improper labeling could bring heavy fines from the FDA. Read More

Islamic Civic Society of America (ICSA) demonstrates the compatibility between Islamic and civic principles in a democratic society. Members of ICSA are dedicated to governing for the common good while addressing the specific needs of the Muslim community. ICSA is an institutional member of the Renewing the Public Congregation (RPC) demonstration of the Minnesota Active Citizenship Initiative. Read More